Developmental Delay and effect on old age

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Is there anything you can say for asperger's and similar disorders in general? Many people have mentioned looking younger. Will it take longer for cognitive decline than NT's and physical decline(everything else being equal)? ie. dementia, memory loss, back problems, disease, hearing issues

Also should "effect" in the topic title have been "affect"? Haven't quite grasped that. Thanks.

thats actually a very good question I am not sure cognativly I think it might. I am 23 but i feel like I am still 7 and am mentaluy about 7-16 it ranges really
I had a friend once describe them spectrum as those on it seem to be "stuck," at a certain childhood pint?

I've been asking myself that question a lot, lately. I guess that we will still be full of energy, long after our peers have slowed down, due to old age.

I'm virtually certain that my Grandmother on my Dad's side was an Aspie - that's the side it seems to run in, since I have a female cousin on that side also DXd. My Grandmother was in excellent physical health for more than 90 years, except for developing Alzheimer's Disease during the last twelve years of her life. In her case, some other physical decline, such as congestive heart failure or massive stroke might have been a blessing, as it would have ended the Alzheimer's Dementia mercifully sooner. As it was, if the AS kept her body healthy longer than it might have been otherwise, it still was no magic bullet.

Personally, I'm hale and hearty at 51, but I exercise daily, so I can't say that's the AS. I have been told all my adult life that I look significantly younger than my actual age - people usually guess about 15 years less than what's accurate.

That's likely due to the fact that our Executive Function tends to stall out at or shortly after adolescence and never matures much further than that.

Hey, I thought developmental delay only happened to little kids. Adults don't have autistic spectrums and ADD and such. Adults do have Altzheimers and general decline due to age. What happens to the little kids who are the focus of research efforts on the spectrum after they grow up? All better now?

I'm 7 inside and I think I will always be this way.

I cannot grow up.

The way the media treats their coverage of ASDs, one would certainly think so. That's the general impression given by the absence of Autistic adults in news coverage. Every once in a while, you see an adult in the movies with Ass Burgers, whatever that is. Hell, who even knows if that Autism stuff actually exists? If they ain't ret*d, they're just wusses and nerds, right?

Nobody's interested in giving large amounts of money to help grownups with a handicap you can't even SEE, for gods' sakes. Put 'em in institutions, like Rainman if they're so screwed up. They're probably faking, for sympathy or Disability benefits. Anyways, that's what Savage says, and he's pretty smart - pretty smartass, anyways. Or just an ass, I forget.

The "looking younger" phenomenon has been discussed in other threads and people have come up with some very reasonable reasons for it. Some of the reasons given are behavioral- acting younger will give the perception of being younger. Another reason given is that having a less-expressive face means developing wrinkles at a later age, giving a more youthful appearance for longer.

I'm a rubber-faced NT. Decades of expansive expressions are giving me crows feet and laugh lines probably not shared by WP members of the same age but with less mobile faces.

So..the collagen in my face is wearing out faster than probably many autistic peoples' facial collagen because of my constant "big" expressions.

But I don't think this means everything else is wearing out faster too. Bad backs are largely a function of a sedentary lifestyle. You escape that through an active lifestyle, not through autism. Willard exercises and that will keep him looking youthful longer. But like he said, it's the exercise, not the AS. The collagen in AS faces probably lasts longer because it doesn't get pulled every which way. But facial collagen is just about the only body part that lasts longer the less you use it. Everything else declines faster or slower based on lifestyle choices (such as exercise) and the random luck of genetics (such as the quality of the immune system you inherited). AS is most likely genetic and factors that add to longevity (such as a good immune system) are genetic (except the ones that are lifestyle choices) but there is no reason to think that these things are linked. Many studies have been done on people >100 and a commonality (besides an awesome immune system) seems to be a very strong social network. So that argues even less for a link between longevity and AS.

All in all.......exercise. That's something that is within one's control and has been proven over and over to slow physical and mental decline.

I don't think we get "stuck" at certain ages; I think we just retain life-long traits people associate with certain age groups. It's all part and parcel of atypical development.

Oh, I definitely feel 'stuck' at a certain age, in most respects. My Intellectual comprehension has matured well into adulthood, but my abilities to take care of myself are no different now than they were when I was maybe 17...mid Twenties at best. I've watched the people around me mature in those respects and become more competent at them, even my sister who's 9 years younger than me, grew up and surpassed me in that regard. But watching that occur, others passing me by, gives me a pretty narrow point of reference to mark the age at which it began to happen.